Given physical constraints, headphone design is typically a study in compromise. This means that at each distinct price point, headphones generally have to balance the conflicting goals of speaker performance and sound attenuation. One way to address this problem might be to use a more expensive speaker to improve speaker performance without negatively impacting the sound attenuation qualities of the earmuff, but this would result in headphones that are too expensive for average consumers (i.e. change the price point). A more typical compromise is to use a standard, less expensive speaker with good mid-range but weak high and/or low frequency response in conjunction with standard headphone sound attenuation. This approach might provide for adequate sound attenuation of external sounds (for hearing protection and/or sound isolation), but the sound quality produced by the headphones would not he particularly good. Applicants are seeking to provide another option, which uses improved design to provide good sound attenuation while also providing quality speaker performance for a moderate price range that rivals that of high-end expensive speakers.